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Panthers crumble in the third, lose 4-3 to Flyers

Jan 13, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers left wing Noah Cates (27) scores a goal past Florida Panthers center Eetu Luostarinen (27) during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

A third period meltdown cost the Florida Panthers two points as the Philadelphia Flyers scored thrice to pull out a 4-3 victory over the middling Cats at Wells Fargo Center to avoid a season series sweep.

The Panthers played a strong first period of road hockey and jumped out to an early lead when Sam Reinhart scored a beautiful unassisted shorthanded goal at 7:59. Reinhart collected an errant Jamie Drysdale cross and lugged the puck up ice before cutting his way past Travis Konency and roofing a forehand shot on Samuel Ersson with his angle running out.

Uvis Balinksis doubled the fun 1:35 later when he gained the zone after receiving a rink-wide crossing pass from Evan Rodrigues and, using the defenseman as screen, fired the puck through Ersson’s wickets from the right circle. Nate Schmidt picked up the second helper on Balinskis’ second of the season.

Florida’s been on the wrong of the puck luck lately, and the Flyers first goal was another frustrating example as Garnet Hathaway’s centering pass into the crease went in off Schmidt 7:51 into the middle frame. Ugh!

Sergei Bobrovsky would shake off yet another own goal and end up stopping 13 of 14 shots in the period as John Tortorella’s charges had wrested control of the game away from the Panthers.

Aleksander Barkov’s second penalty of the night led to Philadelphia second score, which came at 2:01 of the third. Travis Sanheim one-timed partner Rasmus Ristolainen’s pass and Noah Cates was there to convert the rebound after Bobrovsky made a fine save on the initial shot.

With Sean Couturier off for hooking, Reinhart put the Panthers back on top 1:34 after the Cates goal. After taking a pass from Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk’s first try for Reinhart was blocked, but his second pass slipped though and Reinhart wheeled around and beat Ersson with a snap shot for his 27th goal.

The Cats undisciplined play continued and it cost them the lead. A tripping call on Dmitry Kulikov put the Flyers on their fifth power play and they got their second PPG of the period when Drysdale’s back door pass for Matvei Michkov was partially broken up Gustav Forsling. Unfortunately, Morgan Frost, who drew the penalty, was there to put the puck behind Bobrovsky at the 5:59 mark.

A big save by Ersson on a Forsling blast with the Panthers up on a 4-on-3 rush was turned around when Ristolainen bumped the puck to Sanheim, who headmanned to Cates. Cates chipped the puck by a gambling Barkov and knocked it down with his glove before breaking in on Bobrovsky and solving him on the backhand with 5:51 left on the clock. A beautiful piece of work by the determined Cates.

Florida came close to tying the tilt, but Ersson denied Eetu Luostarinen twice and then a made a third save on Anton Lundell during a high-pressure sequence late in the game.

The Panthers had been 16-0-0 this season when leading after two periods before blowing this one with penalties, defensive breakdowns and lack of attention to detail. Yeah, Reinhart is back in a big way, but are there too many forwards (looking at you, Barkov, Tkachuk, Bennett and Verhaeghe) who are not scoring. It will probably go unnoticed by many, and there was plenty of hockey played after, but A.J. Greer’s miss on a perfect Mackie Samoskevich set up should’ve put the Cats up by three in the second period. It’s probably game over at the point. That’s just kind of how it’s been going lately.

Lift & Drag

  • After going six games without a goal, Sam Reinhart has now scored five times in the past three games to take sole possession of second place in the NHL. He is four behind Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (31) and leads the league with five shorthanded goals.
  • First Star Noah Cates became the fourth Flyer in the past 20 years to score a game-tying and go-ahead goal in the final frame, joining Brayden Schenn, Claude Giroux and R.J. Umberger.
  • Struggling Sam Bennett won 61.5% of his faceoffs, but didn’t do much else, finishing with one shot, one block and two hits. With time left for one last chance, Bennett shot the puck into the crowd. Doh!
  • Morgan Frost scored for the third straight game. That’s the second time that he’s done that in his NHL career.
  • The Panthers only managed to put 23 shots on Samuel Ersson. Philadelphia helped their young goalie out by blocking 27 others.

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